o the government they've sworn to
defend. Now then, march! Alden, give Dotey thy arm to lean upon if he
needs it. Forward!"

That night Dotey and Lister slept in two rooms under guard, and the next
morning the freemen of the colony were convened in the Common house to
judge their case. With them Billington was also summoned, although
neither Dotey nor Lister had betrayed his complicity.

Accused of deliberate assault upon each other with deadly weapons both
men humbly pleaded guilty and expressed their penitence, but to this
Bradford gravely replied,--

"Glad are we to know that ye are penitent, and resolved upon amendment,
but ne'er the less we cannot therefore omit some signal punishment both
to make a serious impression upon your own memories, and to advertise to
all other evil-doers that we bear not the sword of justice in vain.
Brethren, I pray you speak your minds. What ought to be done to these
would-be murderers?"

"In the army they would have earned a flogging," remarked the captain
sitting at the governor's right hand.

"Perhaps solitary confinement with fasting would subdue the angry heat
of their blood most effectually," said the elder at Bradford's other
side.

"Had we a pillory or a pair of stocks I would advise that public
disgrace," said Winslow; and Allerton suggested,--

"They might be fined for the benefit of the public purse."

"If the Governor will leave them to me I'll promise to trounce them
well, and after, to set them extra tasks for a month or so," offered
Hopkins; and Alden murmured to Howland,--

"Allerton is treasurer of the public purse, and Hopkins will profit by
the extra labor, mark you!"

"What is thy counsel, Surgeon Fuller?" inquired Bradford, and the
whimsical doctor replied,--

"I once saw two fellows in a little village of Sussex lying upon the
stones of the market-place, tied neck and heels, and methinks I never
have heard such ingenious profanity as those men were yelling each at
his unseen comrade. I asked the publican where I baited my horse the
cause of so strange a spectacle, and he said this was their manner of
disciplining brawlers in the ale-house. They were to lie there
four-and-twenty hours without bite or sup, and so I left them. Methinks
it were a suitable discipline in this case, but I may fairly hope the
profanity of those unenlightened rustics will give place with our erring
brethren to sighs of penitence and sorrow."

"What think you, brethren, of o